The earliest Skidmores' to settle in Lamar County were brothers Abraham and Thomas. Information about these brothers follow. Considerable information is available about their ancestors (see the links below):
THOMAS SKIDMORE, was born on 3 March 1789 in Lee County, Virginia, the son of Thomas and Charity (Chapman) Skidmore. He died 8 December 1859 in Lamar County, Texas, of a liver disorder according to the 1860 Mortality Schedule. He married Mary (born 24 June 1790 in Burke County, North Carolina), a daughter of John and Lavina (Williams) Reed on 11 February 1807 in Madison County, Kentucky. His wife died 24 October 1865 at Sylvan, Lamar County, Texas. They are buried on a half acre set aside as a family cemetery 1+ miles south of Sylvan, Texas.
Thomas Skidmore was in Hopkins County, Kentucky, in 1812 but had moved by 1817 to St. Clair County, Illinois, where he voted in an election at Belleville on 17 September 1818. His brother Abraham went to Lamar County, Texas, in 1836, and Thomas followed with the rest of his family, arriving on 25 October 1839. He had a land grant for 640 acres nine miles southeast of Paris, Texas. He was in Tennessee (presumably Bedford County) in 1822 but moved in 1825 to Morgan (then called Cotaco) County, Alabama, where he stayed until 1839. Thomas and his brother Abraham Skidmore (no. 28) were surveyors at an early day of a part of the road between Crabb's Landing and Centerville in Morgan County.
The family homestead went after the death of Thomas and his wife to his son Mathew L. Skidmore who is also buried there.
Children:
61. i. Thomas, born 1 December 1808.
ii. Cynthia, born 2 January 1810. She married Jackson Isaac Bratton on 24 July 1840 in Lamar County.
62. iii. William Edward, born 8 November 1812.
63. iv. Schuyler B., born 19 September 1814.
64. v. John, born 14 December 1817.
65. vi. David Anderson, born 11 April 1820.
vii. Eliza Ann, born 25 October 1822 (in Tennessee according to her tombstone). She married James Graham (1815-1884) on 20 September 1842. She died on 5 December 1886 at Paris, Texas, and is buried there.
viii. Mary Jane, born 25 October 1824. She married Alexander N. Graham on 26 August 1844. She died 22 October 1865.
ix. Stephen H., born 8 June 1825. He died 14 February 1842.
x. Joseph B., born 8 July 1827. He was a private in Company D, First Louisiana Cavalry, enlisting on 15 September 1862 at Kingston, Roane County, Tennessee. He was present on the rolls until 30 June 1863 when he was promoted to Second Lieutenant and transferred Captain Warren's company of Barton's Battalion (reorganized as Company H, 11th Regiment of Alabama Cavalry.) He was a clerk in a store after the war at Tuscumbia, Colbert County, Alabama, according to the 1870 census. He recorded earmarks for his livestock on 17 May 1873. He was living at Littleville in Colbert County on 13 June 1895 when he applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Alabama. No other papers are found in his file at Montgomery and he probably died soon after.
66. xi. Murdock M., born 5 September 1829.
67. xii. Gaius Kibby, born 5 April 1832.
68. xiii. Mathew L., born 3 March 1834.
ABRAHAM SKIDMORE was born on 3 May 1797 in Madison County, Kentucky, the 7th son of Thomas and Charity (Chapman) Skidmore. He was twice married, firstly to Celia Thompson (born 27 June 1804 in Chester District, South Carolina; she died 18 October 1847) on 27 August 1820, and secondly to her sister Emeline (Emily) (born 1818 in Bedford County, Tennessee) on 10 February 1850. They were daughters of James Thompson. He died on 15 June 1861 in Lamar County, Texas, and is buried with his wives on his farm in Biardstown. Emily Skidmore was living with her daughters Alice and Martha in Lamar County in 1870.
Abraham served in the West Tennessee Militia in the War of 1812. He enlisted 13 November 1814 in the company of Captain Andrew Patterson under the command of Colonel Metcalf. Patterson's muster roll shows that they marched from their place of residence at Shelbyville, Bedford County, Tennessee, to war and that they were not discharged until 13 May 1815.
He had moved by 1818 to Morgan (then called Cotaco) County, Alabama, with his brothers. Abraham Skidmore was named a constable in 1823, and was appointed sheriff of Morgan County in 1825. He was appointed administrator in Morgan County of his deceased father-in-law on 20 April 1827 and was enumerated in the 1830 census of Morgan County.
Abraham Skidmore arrived in Lamar County, Texas, in March 1836. He settled 12 miles south of Paris on "Skidmore's Prairie" where he had a land grant for 1280 acres (two full sections) mostly in Lamar County but partly in Delta County, Texas. His family followed him to Texas, arriving in Lamar County on 1 May 1838. His removal to Texas seems to have been well advised and he prospered there; in the census of 1850 of Lamar County he is shown holding real property worth $15,138.00.
In July 1854, A. Skidmore was the head of a household in Lamar County that included two scholastics; this census of students was taken by his older son T. H. Skidmore who was then Assessor and Collector for the county.
Children: (by first wife)
i. James Thompson, born 10 July 1821 and died 21 November 1825.
ii. Thomas Henry, born 19 March 1823.
iii. Edward Thompson, born 5 April 1825.
iv. Lemuel Dickson, born 30 January 1827.
v. William Hooley, born 4 May 1829. He was living at home in 1860. He is probably the William M. Skidmore who enlisted as a private in Captain Milton Webb's company of Lamar County Volunteers on 8 April 1861 at Paris, Texas, for 12 months, and was mustered in on 10 April 1861. This organization was to be attached to Ford's Regiment of Texas Mounted Volunteers. He was then aged 30. The company was stationed at Hubbard's Creek on 18 May and 15 June 1861. According to War Department records he served later in Company K, First (McCulloch's) Texas Cavalry, also in Company D, Eighth (Taylor's) Battalion of Texas Cavalry as a Corporal, and lastly in Company I, First (Yager's) Texas Cavalry also as a Corporal. He was apparently dead in 1870.
vi. John Alexander, born 7 June 1831.
vii. Frances Jane, born 31 March 1833 and died 31 July 1833.
viii. Joseph Franklin, born 13 July 1834 and died 19 September 1836.
ix. Nancy America, born 10 May 1841. She married firstly Shadrack R. Hendrickson on 2 January 1861; he was killed later in the same year in the service of the Confederate Army. She married secondly Robert O. Smith on 24 November 1865. She died 28 November 1910.
x. Mary Eliza, born 7 August 1846. She married Thomas Winsett.
(by second wife)
xi. Lucy Amanda, born February 1850. She married James Thomas Anderson (1847-1918) on 2 February 1868. She died 1 November 1889 in Lamar County.
xii. James Francis, born 25 June 1851.
xiii. Alice, born 1855. She married John King on 15 January 1882.
xiv. Martha A., born 1857. She married William A. Clements on 24 December 1877 in Lamar
County.
Contributed by Frank Skidmore. All rights reserved.
Note from Frank: Warren Skidmore and I have decided to put all of our books and some other genealogical information on a CD rather than continue to publish in hard copy. For more information about the CD, visit our page.
We have considerable early information on the Skidmore families of Lamar County. We have their
genealogy back to the mid-1500s in England. We will be glad to help any Skidmore researchers
with individual questions. I can be contacted at <skid@edge.net> or <frankskid@yahoo.com>. I
am located at 267 Golf Course Lane, Winchester, TN 37398, telephone # 931-967-2589>. Or
contact Warren Skidmore, 171 Goodhue Drive, Akron, OH 44313, telephone # 330-864-2787,
<wskidmor@neo.lrun.com>.